A 20-year-old gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, this morning, killing at least 13 people and wounding 20 others. students were in class when a bullet went through the window and soon after the shooter was in the room.

He told people to get on the ground and then had his victims stand up and state their religion before shooting them dead. At a press conference this afternoon police said the gunman, who has not been identified, is dead. It is not clear how he was killed. Shortly after the shooting, President Obama addressed the nation demanding stronger gun laws, saying that the country has become ‘numb’ to these mass shootings. Authorities said that there doesn’t appear to be a link with international terrorism.

President Obama addressing White House reporters following the shooting said: ‘America will wrap everyone who is grieving with our prayers and our love.

‘Somehow this has become routine, ‘The reporting has become routine. My response here, from this podium, ends up being routine.’

He added: ‘But as I said just a few months ago and I said a few months before that, and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It’s not enough.

‘It does not capture the grief and anger that we should feel and it does nothing to prevent this type of carnage from being inflicted in some other place in America. Next week, or a couple of months from now.’

Obama said that the shooter must have mental health issues, but while other countries have people suffering from such issues, nowhere is there the kind of gun violence seen regularly in the United States.

He added: ‘We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.

‘The United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings.’

Obama said he had spoken in the wake of such tragedies 15 times, including the Charleston church massacre and the shooting at at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

He said he has frequently called for legislation to try and stop gun violence, and insisted he would continue to bring the issue up every time a shooting occurs.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton echoed the president’s sentiments, writing on Twitter: ‘Another devastating shooting. We need sensible gun control measures to save lives, and I will do everything I can to achieve that.’

In a thinly-veiled reference to groups, such as the National Rifle Association, which has opposed many of the president’s effort to tighten laws, he mocked those who believed the answer is ‘more guns’.

Who believes that?’ he asked.

‘Each time this happens, I’m going to bring this up,’ Obama said.

‘I hope and pray that I don’t have to come out again in my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families under these circumstances.

‘But based on my experience as president, I can’t guarantee that.’

He added: ‘I would particularly ask America’s gun owners, who are using those guns properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, or protecting their families, to think about whether your views are properly being represented by the organization that suggests it’s speaking for you.’

President had earlier lamented that his inability to achieve gun control is his greatest frustration.